Hacker News with Generative AI: Computer Science

Uninitialized garbage on ia64 can be deadly (2004) (microsoft.com)
On Friday, we talked about some of the bad things that can happen if you call a function with the wrong signature.

Programming, Security, Software Development, Computer Science, Architecture

19 points by HeliumHydride 30 days ago | 0 comments

Look Ma, No Bubbles: Designing a Low-Latency Megakernel for Llama-1B (hazyresearch.stanford.edu)
There are some applications that benefit from running LLMs really, really fast. This low-latency regime encompasses applications like chatbots and human-in-the-loop workflows, where users care a lot about seeing responses come back immediately.

Performance Optimization, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence

236 points by ljosifov 31 days ago | 31 comments

10biForthOS: A full 8086 OS in 46 bytes (git.sr.ht)

Operating Systems, Assembly Language, 8086, Software, Computer Science

8 points by mdp2021 31 days ago | 3 comments

Grid-Free Approach to Partial Differential Equations on Volumetric Domains [pdf] (rohansawhney.io)

Computational Mathematics, Numerical Methods, Computer Science, Scientific Computing

57 points by luu 31 days ago | 4 comments

Grammars of Formal Uncertainty (arxiv.org)
Large language models (LLMs) show remarkable promise for democratizing automated reasoning by generating formal specifications.

Formal Languages, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science

34 points by barthelomew 32 days ago | 5 comments

Year 2038 Problem (wikipedia.org)

Software, Programming, Time, Computer Science, Technical Issues

22 points by abixb 32 days ago | 7 comments

Computer Science major has seventh highest unemployment rate (newsweek.com)
Despite routinely ranking as one of the most popular majors for college students and recent graduates, computer science has one of the highest unemployment rates across all areas of study.

Computer Science, Education, Employment, Unemployment

20 points by claudiulodro 32 days ago | 2 comments

As a programmer, get your math sorted (csprimer.in)
Master the mathematical foundations essential for computer science.

Programming, Computer Science, Mathematics

14 points by csprimer-in 32 days ago | 19 comments

You could have invented Transformers (gwern.net)
‘You Could Have Invented Transformers’ tutorial proposal

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Deep Learning

34 points by jxmorris12 33 days ago | 0 comments

Open Source Society University – Path to a free self-taught education in CS (github.com/ossu)
The OSSU curriculum is a complete education in computer science using online materials.

Computer Science, Education, Open Source, Free Resources

534 points by saikatsg 33 days ago | 162 comments

20 years of NetBSD code bloat (blogspot.com)
I started with NetBSD in the mid-nineties, on a Sun SPARC ELC with 32Mbyte of memory, where I used GCC and Emacs on X11 with FVWM as the window manager. I'm still using GCC, Emacs, and FVWM with the same configuration files (updated for pointless changes in Emacs and FVWM), but I now need much more memory and CPU performance... I thought it would be interesting to investigate why.

Operating Systems, Software, History, Computer Science, Linux

8 points by hxorr 33 days ago | 1 comments

Domain Theory Lecture Notes (liamoc.net)

Domain Theory, Mathematics, Computer Science, Education

61 points by todsacerdoti 34 days ago | 7 comments

The Verse Calculus: A Core Calculus for Functional Logic Programming [pdf] (peytonjones.org)

Functional Programming, Logic Programming, Computer Science, Programming Languages

50 points by droideqa 34 days ago | 19 comments

Alan Turing papers saved from shredder could fetch £150k (theguardian.com)
Widely considered the father of theoretical computer science, Alan Turing’s influence on modern life continues to be felt in the age of artificial intelligence. But despite this legacy, a cache of his most important papers was nearly shredded – only to be saved at the last minute when their significance was recognised at a family event.

Computer Science, History, AI, Legacy

6 points by ColinWright 34 days ago | 0 comments

Model-Based Machine Learning (2023) (mbmlbook.com)

Machine Learning, Computer Science, Books

5 points by Tomte 35 days ago | 0 comments

Recreating a video from raw captured network traffic (2023) (thesloth.me)
A few days ago i stumbled upon the idea to recreate a video from traffic captured in PCAP file. It may be a common knowledge that this is possible, but it felt like the coolest thing i’ve done in a while. If you’re interested on how it was done continue reading.

Computer Science, Networking, Video Editing

8 points by hiAndrewQuinn 35 days ago | 0 comments

CRDTs #2: Turtles All the Way Down (jhellerstein.github.io)
Modern distributed systems often seem to rest on an stack of turtles. For every guarantee we make, we seem to rely on a lower-layer assumption. Eventually we're left wondering: what is at the bottom?

Distributed Systems, Computer Science, Databases, CRDTs

67 points by pfarago 36 days ago | 2 comments

New method for creating large 3D models of urban areas is faster and cheaper (techxplore.com)
A research team led by Waterloo Engineering has developed a faster, cheaper way to create large-scale, three-dimensional (3D) computer models of urban areas, technology that could impact fields including urban planning, architectural design and filmmaking.

Urban Planning, 3D Modeling, Computer Science, Technology

57 points by PaulHoule 36 days ago | 4 comments

The Next Abstraction (substack.com)

Software, Programming, Technology, Computer Science

47 points by mbs348 36 days ago | 20 comments

Study shows vision-language models can't handle queries with negation words (news.mit.edu)
Words like “no” and “not” can cause this popular class of AI models to fail unexpectedly in high-stakes settings, such as medical diagnosis.

Artificial Intelligence, Science, Computer Science

6 points by taubek 36 days ago | 0 comments

Ask HN: Places in the UK / Europe Related to computers (ycombinator.com)
I’m interested in visiting some historic or special places related to this field as a way of rejuvenating my passion in the field again.

History, Technology, Travel, Computer Science

13 points by sailorganymede 36 days ago | 17 comments

Dijkstra on Ada (wordpress.com)
Dijkstra was one of the reviewers of the fours language proposals which eventually lead to the language Ada: red, green, blue, and yellow (the winning proposal was green). Here are some quotes from each of the reviews:

Programming Languages, History, Computer Science

65 points by cpeterso 37 days ago | 47 comments

CRDTs: Pros and Cons (Lattices and Lettuces?) (jhellerstein.github.io)
Over the next few days, I'm going to post a number of observations about CRDTs: Convergent Replicated Data Types. These are data structures that aspire to help us with coordination-free distributed programming, a topic that interests me a lot. How can developers (or languages/compilers) deliver distributed programs that are safe or correct in important ways, without employing expensive mechanisms for coordination that make the global cloud run as slowly as a sequential computer?

Distributed Systems, Programming, Data Structures, Computer Science, Coordination

6 points by KraftyOne 37 days ago | 0 comments

For algorithms, a little memory outweighs a lot of time (quantamagazine.org)
One computer scientist’s “stunning” proof is the first progress in 50 years on one of the most famous questions in computer science.

Algorithms, Computer Science, Time Complexity, Memory

343 points by makira 37 days ago | 139 comments

Everyone gets bidirectional BFS wrong (2024) (zdimension.fr)
People really need to stop blindly copying code from the Internet.

Algorithms, Computer Science, Programming

8 points by stopachka 37 days ago | 0 comments

Alan Turing papers saved from shredder could fetch £150k (theguardian.com)
Widely considered the father of theoretical computer science, Alan Turing’s influence on modern life continues to be felt in the age of artificial intelligence. But despite this legacy, a cache of his most important papers was nearly shredded – only to be saved at the last minute when their significance was recognised at a family event.

Computer Science, History, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Legacy

7 points by bookofjoe 37 days ago | 0 comments

Memory Consistency Models: A Tutorial (jamesbornholt.com)
There are, of course, only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors. But there is another hard problem lurking amongst the tall weeds of computer science: seeing things in order. Whether it be sorting, un-sorting, or tweeting, seeing things in order is a challenge for the ages.

Computer Science, Programming, Memory Management

57 points by tanelpoder 39 days ago | 5 comments

Definitive solution to the hardest problem in computing: P = NP? (researchgate.net)

Computer Science, Complexity Theory

22 points by vicentesteve 39 days ago | 14 comments

Why Concatenative Programming Matters (2012) (blogspot.com)
Concatenative programming is so called because it uses function composition instead of function application—a non-concatenative language is thus called applicative.